RI gov to shut down government for 12 days

Tuesday

Aug 25, 2009 at 6:15 AMAug 25, 2009 at 6:18 AM

PROVIDENCE, RI -- Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and hopes to trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Gov. Don Carcieri outlined Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.

RAY HENRY

PROVIDENCE, RI -- Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and hopes to trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Gov. Don Carcieri outlined Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.

The shutdown will force 81 percent of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July.

The closures come as the worst recession in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7 percent, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation behind Michigan.

Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker.

"There are going to be inconveniences for the public, and there are going to be sacrifices, as I said, for state employees," Carcieri said at a Statehouse news conference. "These steps right now are unavoidable if the state is to live within its budget, live within its means."

The governor ordered the shutdown in an executive order but said he's willing to negotiate a different deal with state employee unions so long as it saves the same amount of money, roughly $22 million. But time is short: the first shutdown day has been scheduled for Sept. 4. Additional shutdown days have been scheduled every month through June.

Critical workers such as state police, prison guards and child abuse investigators still will report to work during the shutdown, Carcieri said. He ruled out raising taxes to balance the budget and said the state cannot lay off more workers since it deeply trimmed its work force last year.

At least 19 other state governments have proposed furloughing workers or shutting down government offices to save money amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Carcieri's plan is certain to spark a legal fight with state employee unions that contend it violates their contracts. In bargaining last year, state workers agreed to give up a pay raise and pay more for their health insurance as state leaders struggled to balance the budget. They also took a day without pay.

"We did what we think is all we can do as taxpayers and state workers," said J. Michael Downey, president of Council 94, a state employee union that represents around 4,000 workers. "We're saying to them that enough of the budget problems have been taken on the backs of state employees."

Besides shutting down state government, Carcieri asked lawmakers to grant him the power to unilaterally cut spending approved in the budget. State lawmakers rejected a similar request from Carcieri earlier this year.

Governors in 38 other states have at least limited powers to cut state spending without legislative approval, according to a survey last year by the National Association of State Budget Officers. State lawmakers stripped that power from Rhode Island's governor in 1997.

If approved, Carcieri said he would cut about $33 million in local funding for city and town governments.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate did not immediately return calls seeking comment.